Hi there! Thanks for coming back. If you’re asking “From where?” you probably need to go and read Part 1 of this blog post here.
So
far we’ve demonstrated, in the face of frenzied denials from Scottish
Labour, that the NHS in England has lately been undergoing jaw-droppingly hazardous
surgery, with no obvious sign of voters having signed consent forms, because of the Tories' irresistible privatisation fetish.
But
we still have work to do to establish that this presents a threat to the
Scottish NHS if we stay within the UK. And
it’s well worth doing so, even if it’s only to annoy the sanctimonious twerps who
snarl that it’s a filthy great lie, often in the same breath as asserting that after
a Yes vote cross-border co-operation on organ transplants will simply melt like snow and bouncers at Great Ormond Street will shoo sick Scottish kids away
with cattle prods.
So fasten your seat belts, it’s time for a demolition job on all those faux-outraged “Yes is scaremongering”
arguments. No doubt nay-sayers will
decry it as simplistic and straw-mannish, but (a) that’s what they get for
reading a comedy blog written by a fat middle-aged bloke whose affection for
grandiose words can’t disguise his lack of intellectual rigour, and (b) they
can just piss off, right?
NHS Scotland is
completely devolved
Well,
it’s independent, if you don’t mind
me being picky. Has been from the very start. Unlike the English NHS,
where vested interests such as the BMA kicked up a fuss, creating the Scottish NHS was like pushing at an open door, a natural development of the existing framework of health provision, and Nye Bevan was too smart to mess with that.
Of
course, the Scottish Government has no control over its funding, unless it
wants to provoke a refugee crisis in Carlisle by exercising its booby-trapped
“tax-raising powers”. Swinney’s magic abacus can achieve only so much if the
Cameron/Osborne nexus of evil shrinks the overall purse.
And
NHS Scotland independence lasts, as does the whole kit and caboodle of
devolution, only as long as the UK Government wills it. Baby-Face Burnham, for one, is on record as
saying he’d like health policies that are “consistent across England, Scotland
and Wales”, so who fancies a game of Russian roulette at the 2015 General
Election?
Nobody’s suggesting
dismantling the Barnett Formula
Uh
huh. Apart from swathes of the English
public stirred up by the mercenary tarts of the London-based press. Or various
purple-faced politicians in other parts of the UK, who I’m sure are not
shaking their fists, but merely trying to empty an invisible bottle of
ketchup.
NHS England funding
is going up, not down
This
one is actually true, as far as my muddled brain can make out. But, as they say in Stock Market offer
documents, well aware that goggle-eyed investors won’t pay any attention,
past performance is no guide to the future. It beggars belief that the Tories, never
knowingly out-Scrooged, would have devised the present upheaval in the NHS if
it weren’t going to result in spending less money over time.
That
it hasn’t yet produced that outcome may well be down to the initial splurge of private
contracts turning out to be a bit of a shambles. Top of the list, and possibly tip of the
iceberg, is the recently-reported botching of a series of cataract operations
by a cowboy outfit in the West Country. Don’t
worry, folks, the part of the local NHS that still remains has donned its white
hat and come galloping to the rescue, but Mr Taxpayer has had to say cheerio to
an arm and a leg in the process.
Basing
the security of Barnett Formula funding on the continuing incompetence of the Tories? Hmmm, not as bad a shout as one might think,
but the law of averages says even Jeremy Hunt can’t make a dog’s dinner of
everything forever. He can’t, surely?
Whatever happens to
funding, privatisation of NHS Scotland isn’t inevitable
No,
of course it isn’t, as long as you ignore the angry-looking cloud on the
horizon called TTIP - “Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership”, I’m advised, although if you prefer to call
it “Terrible Treatment, Inflated Profits” I won’t stand in your way.
TTIP
is an agreement that the EU, in one of its inexplicable bouts of corporate
tummy-tickling, has concluded with the USA to “liberalise” trade. Blowing away the flimsy construct of
democracy, it forces member states to place their public services open to
competition from American multinationals, in return for what looks suspiciously
like bugger-all, though I’m sure it’s covered somewhere in infinitesimally small print. The transformation, needless
to say, is irreversible, unless you’re Peter Capaldi and can remember where
you’ve parked your police box.
It
doesn’t apply in cases where there’s an existing state monopoly. An independent Scotland, starting with the
NHS as it’s currently administered, could make a rock-solid case for exemption.
However, if we remained part of the UK, and
therefore not a “state” which could aspire to any sort of monopoly, that would
be tantamount to painting a bloody great target on our backs. With Hunt and his fellow clowns busily pimping
the NHS as the new Klondike, any escape route would be well and truly
kyboshed.
Of
course, this all becomes academic if Westminster slashes our pocket money and
forces us to put the NHS entirely through the mincer. In that event nobody will care about any
pinstriped vultures enjoying a tasty scavenge, because we’ll all be too busy
trying to ward off sickness with herbs and superstition.
Folks,
NHS Scotland isn’t perfect, although as a consumer of health services on both
sides of the border I like the cut of its jib.
But I’d like it to stay ours, to be run by people we can hold to account
and ultimately controlled by politicians we elect and, if necessary eject.
That
may happen whichever way we vote in September, or it may not. If I had a crystal ball, I’d be spending my
time at Ladbroke’s growing disgustingly rich instead of wasting your time here. But looking at the direction of
the wind, and the various aromas it’s wafting our way, it’s not too difficult
to judge the balance of probabilities.
Vote
Yes, Scotland. For the good of your
health.
If you’d like to find out more
about the NHS arguments in the referendum debate from people who aren’t
fat middle-aged blokes whose affection for grandiose words can’t disguise their
lack of intellectual rigour, may I recommend the following:
Any YouTube video featuring Dr Philippa Whitford!
No comments:
Post a Comment